One Strawberry, Three Ways: Part I

The first time I heard about Sabayon, it was at Iron Chef America’s kitchen. Limoncello Sabayon, to be exact. I’ve been wanting to make this, since A left me her Limoncello. But for whatever reason, I completely forgot about it. Maybe because I was lured by David Lebovitz’s beautiful description about his sabayon that uses fresh strawberry.

I grabbed some fresh strawberries the other day: Nacional Morango, local strawberries. They aren’t sweet at all, often bruised and typically sour. It’s okay because I typically dip it in chocolate ganache anyway.

Even with this sabayon, I think the sourness works wonderfully.

However what doesn’t work for us is the texture. I knew it wasn’t supposed to take few minutes to whip and whip. Until soft peaks. And I think I achieved that. Or maybe I didn’t.

We both found it strange to be eating froth. H asked where the cream was. But the recipe didn’t call for cream. We thought the texture was too light body. And after awhile, you can tell the froth is turning back into liquid. Hmm, what’s wrong? If only I could dial 911 to David and ask for his opinion.

Enough with the negative. The positive side of this experiment is that this.. this.. thing tastes awesome. I made mine using savignon blanc, not a sweet wine by far. But still, the cooked wine oozes the most delightful perfume, and even if we think the froth is weird, the liquid that’s pooling at the bottom of the glass tastes amazing. The sweetness of it matches perfectly with the sourness of the berries.

Both of us have never eaten sabayon before. So while I’m not chucking the recipe entirely to the side, I think I would like to have a taste of a real Sabayon before making this again.

Go hop over to his site and try the recipe, maybe you’ll have a better result than me.